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A review by marureviere
Fragile Longing by Cora Reilly
2.0
slight spoilers ahead
The story is pretty much about the hero and heroine getting engaged and the h already pining for the H even when she was still young; the hero, of course *eye roll*, slept around for years until they got married, but then the hero finally started to notice heroine when she got older and fell in lust. They got married, had sex, had children. The end. I yawned and lost interest at some point.
My main issue with this book (and, to be honest, in most of Cora Reilly's works) is not even about the hero sleeping around, though it's really annoying; I'm still disgusted with what transpired on Twisted Hearts. Anyway, my chief problem is the lack of romance. Where is their connection aside from sex? Where are the emotions? The chemistry? Wasn't this supposed to be romance? Well, where is it? I mean, feelings were mentioned but it's not really present in the story? It wasn't convincing enough. Hell, it wasn't convincing at all. Sophia was infatuated with Danilo and hero-worshipping him for some reason that still escapes me (I wouldn't even call it love) and Danilo developed attraction towards her more than halfway through the story, but he wasn't in love with her either. They rarely even had any interactions aside from very brief and inconsequential ones throughout the years that they were engaged, but then when they got married and started talking here and there and eventually had sex, Danilo realized that he was head over heels for her? And this happened in the last 90% of the book if I'm not mistaken. Whut. Huh? That's it?
This honestly had no substance and not memorable. The characters were flat and lackluster. Plot was underdeveloped. The writing and flow of the story felt mechanical, and this amplified my great struggle to connect with the characters. All in all, this particular book simply did not work for me, unfortunately.
I'm still holding out hope that I'd like Ms. Reilly's future works though (I really enjoyed Twisted Pride, mostly because of Remo and the not-so-prevalent archaic beliefs that his family has), so I would still read the ones that she'd eventually write. Maybe I would have better luck with them.
The story is pretty much about the hero and heroine getting engaged and the h already pining for the H even when she was still young; the hero, of course *eye roll*, slept around for years until they got married, but then the hero finally started to notice heroine when she got older and fell in lust. They got married, had sex, had children. The end. I yawned and lost interest at some point.
My main issue with this book (and, to be honest, in most of Cora Reilly's works) is not even about the hero sleeping around, though it's really annoying; I'm still disgusted with what transpired on Twisted Hearts. Anyway, my chief problem is the lack of romance. Where is their connection aside from sex? Where are the emotions? The chemistry? Wasn't this supposed to be romance? Well, where is it? I mean, feelings were mentioned but it's not really present in the story? It wasn't convincing enough. Hell, it wasn't convincing at all. Sophia was infatuated with Danilo and hero-worshipping him for some reason that still escapes me (I wouldn't even call it love) and Danilo developed attraction towards her more than halfway through the story, but he wasn't in love with her either. They rarely even had any interactions aside from very brief and inconsequential ones throughout the years that they were engaged, but then when they got married and started talking here and there and eventually had sex, Danilo realized that he was head over heels for her? And this happened in the last 90% of the book if I'm not mistaken. Whut. Huh? That's it?
This honestly had no substance and not memorable. The characters were flat and lackluster. Plot was underdeveloped. The writing and flow of the story felt mechanical, and this amplified my great struggle to connect with the characters. All in all, this particular book simply did not work for me, unfortunately.
I'm still holding out hope that I'd like Ms. Reilly's future works though (I really enjoyed Twisted Pride, mostly because of Remo and the not-so-prevalent archaic beliefs that his family has), so I would still read the ones that she'd eventually write. Maybe I would have better luck with them.